420 and 470 Junior Europeans - Breezy day 4 in Gdynia

Two races for the 420 gold and silver fleets and three races for each of the 470 Men and 470 Women were completed on a breezy race day four at the 420 and 470 Junior Europeans in Gdynia, Poland.

A mix of cloud, sun and squalls across the race track on a day which despite starting bright, soon saw rain and big shifts, with a breeze of around 12 knots as racing got underway building to 20 knots.

Sunday marks the penultimate day of racing, so teams will strive to consolidate positions and climb up the leaderboard.

A brief turn of fortunes after race 7 as Poland’s Ewa Romaniuk/Katarzyna Goralska moved up to claim the overall lead, as a 37th place finish forced series leaders until that point Hippolyte Machetti/Sidoine Dantes off pole spot.

Explaining their change of form, Dantes said, 'We were at the right of the track on the second upwind leg and the wind did a 60 degree wind shift to the right and we were stuck on the left of the track.'

The French were back on form for race 8, finishing in second place and swiftly regaining the Championship lead. Boosted by their silver medal and finishing as the top placed team aged 18 and under at the 420 Worlds, the French team look set for a second appearance on the podium at the Junior Europeans.

'We are really pleased with how we are performing and we have really good speed like at the 420 Worlds. The English team are doing really well here too,' before concluding, 'It is a great Championship.'

Acknowledging the talent of Ewa Romaniuk/Katarzyna Goralska, Dantes continued, 'I didn’t know their level, as during this summer we only raced against guys during the ISAF Worlds and the 420 Worlds, so this is the first time we have raced against them. They are really, really good.'

Moving into second overall, as the Polish girls team drop to fourth, are Switzerland’s Kilian Wagen/Gregoire Siegwart who finished fifth in race 7 and ended their day with a win in race 8.

Holding onto leaderboard third for the second day running after their 14,8 scorecard today are Great Britain’s Max Clapp/Joseph Burns. A 32nd place finish earlier this month at the 420 Worlds was not reflective of usual form, which includes wins at the 2013 Palamos Christmas Race and second at the French Nationals in an 86-boat fleet in July 2014.

'The 420 Worlds just didn’t click for us,' said Burns. 'There were some pretty non-tactical races with just one shift per beat and if we were on the wrong side of the track there was nothing we could do to get back. Everyone was the same speed at the Worlds, so it was very hard to catch up.'

Burns credits their about-turn to front of fleet racing at the Junior Europeans to good starts and shifting conditions, saying, 'Our starts have now improved and it is really shifty and incredibly gusty here, so even if you do have a bad start there are definitely ways of catching up. We have found we know how to use that quite well and that has been the biggest thing.'

A crushing lesson for Ireland’s Harry Whittaker/Grattan Roberts who won the day’s opening race, but then managed to lose 22 places in the last downwind of race 8, catapulting from third to 25th as they chose the wrong track downwind. Regardless, their win sees them move up to 14th overall from 24th going into the day.

The girl’s teams have all been explicit that they enjoy racing in the open fleet and going head to head with the boys, and for many the format is the same as their usual racing back home. So no surprise to see four girl’s teams in the top 10 leaderboard. Joining the fourth placed Polish team are Great Britain’s Sarah Norbury/Mari Davies in fifth, Aikaterini Tavoulari/Fotini Koutsoumpou (GRE) in eighth and Italy’s Clara Addari/Arianna Perini in 10th.

Bronze medallists at this year’s 420 Ladies World Championships, Tavoulari/Koutsoumpou are the top placed team from the Worlds competing here at the Junior Europeans.

Just four more races on Sunday and Monday to decide the 2014 420 Junior European titles. Trophies will be awarded to the overall Junior European Champion and the top placed all-girls team, with medals to the top three in each division, as well as prizes to other top placed teams.

No change in order of the top three teams after three races today, with Jordi Xammar/Joan Herp (ESP) continuing to lead. The pair extend their advantage to 12 points over Germany’s Malte Winkel/Matti Cipra. In turn, the Germans have given themselves a 15 point margin over the third placed Italian pair of Giacomo Ferrari/Giulio Calabro.

Three different race winners in a day of incredibly close racing, which saw Poland’s Filip Florek/Dominik Janowczyk win race 6, Timofey Grigorin-Ryabov/Alexey Safonov (RUS) take out race 7 and Matthes Waack/Matthias Rummel triumph in race 8.

Two races are scheduled on Sunday 18 August, after which the top ten boats will advance to Monday’s Medal Race.

A challenging 3-race day for the 470 Women sees defending Junior European Champions Anna Kyselova/Anastasiya Krasko (UKR) still in control and extending their points margin over the fleet with an 11th place in race 5 followed by back to back wins, to put 18 points between themselves and Frederike Loewe/Anna Markfort (GER) in second overall.

On equal points with Loewe/Markfort are this year's 470 Junior World bronze medallists Noya Bar-Am/Rimon Shoshan (ISR) who remain in third overall. Bar-Am/Shoshan have so far sailed an impeccably consistent series and are the only team to count an all top 10 scoreline.

A great day of racing for the three Israeli 470 Women teams in race 7 as they all finished in the top five, and two teams now sit inside the top 10.

A disqualification for Jess Lavery/Megan Brickwood in race 7 after a port/starboard infringement against Cecilia Zorzi/Bianca Caruso (ITA) sees the pair in fourth overall and on equal points with the Italians.

Three races are scheduled for the 470 Women on Sunday to complete a 10 race series, ahead of the top 10 teams advancing to the Medal Race on Monday 18 August.

The 470 fleets will start racing first on Echo Course with a 1200 hours warning signal for the 470 Women who will sail three races, followed by the 470 Men who will sail two races. The 420 Gold and Silver fleets will race on Delta Course with a 1300 hours warning signal for the 420 Gold, followed by 420 Silver.